Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A quick shout out to Sarah - a reader of our Murder is Everywhere blog - who came up and said hello at the ALA library conference in DC....nice meeting you Sarah and thanks for stopping by!

I've just spent the night in Las Vegas airport after a missed flight - slot machines ringing as I camped on the floor - so please excuse a quick and dirty grilling of Rebecca Cantrell who's new book set in Weimar Germany has just come out.

On tour for A Night of the Long Knives and jet lagged from the Hawaii flight, where Rebecca Cantrell a Berlin Weimar period writer award winning author lives with her family, I shot her some questions. Not at gunpoint, I might add but Rebecacca was gracious and here goes. The bright light is shining.So quick and dirty Rebecca, tell me:

Cara -What crime novel would you most like to have written?"The Third Man" by Graham Greene

Cara - What fictional character would you most like to have been?James Bond, except a girl

Cara - Who do you read for guilty pleasures?Everything, and I don't even feel guilty about it

Cara - Most satisfying writing moment?When I look up and realize that hours have gone by without me noticing

Cara - Do tell, the best Brazilian, British, Thai, Icelandic, South African, French or German crime novel is …?Best one I read recently: Berlin, by Pierre Frei

Cara - What Brazilian, British, Thai, Icelandic, South African, French or German crime novel would make a great movie...apart from yours?Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kaestner. It's been made a few times, with the best version in 1931. But I think it's ripe for a remake.

Cara - Worst / best thing about being a writer?Worst: Bad reviewsBest: Me alone in a room making things up

Cara - Pitch me your next book"A Game of Lies" is set during the 1936 Berlin Olympic. Just for the duration of the games, the Nazis are pretending that Berlin is not the oppressive city they have made it. They have taken down anti-Semitic posters, re-opened gay bars, and stopped beating up their citizens in public. But it’s a thin veneer of tolerance.Hannah travels to this Berlin to write a story on the games and smuggle out secret documents. At the stadium, soon after she is reunited with the famous reporter Peter Weill, her mentor and ersatz father, he dies in her arms. The next day his beloved sister is found dead too. When the Nazis cover up both murders, Hannah determines to reveal the story they died for.

Cara - Who are you reading right now?Re-reading "The Night of the Long Knives" by Paul Maracin so I can answer questions intelligently on my tour.

Cara - The three best words to describe your own writing are..?It's hard to answer this one without feeling like an arrogant jerk.Compassionate, historical, Berlin.